1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a purse seine hairpin retainer and purse ring handling method for the recovery of a purse seine loaded with a fish catch.
2. Prior Art
The procedure conventionally used in purse seine operations is to lower a net into the water in a loop around the school of fish. Floats attached to the top of the net keep it from sinking while weights attached to the lower edge of the net hold it substantially vertical in the water so that the net extends to a depth of typically 50 fathoms. Attached along the bottom of the net at regular intervals by means of chain bridles are a plurality of purse rings which, in turn, are threaded by a purse line so that when the seine has been looped around a school of fish the bottom of the net may be closed and the fish thus trapped by hauling in the purse line to draw the rings close together. Traditionally the purse rings are pulled onto the deck of the boat, where they are collected, arranged in order and sometimes tied together in groups so as to avoid the possibility of the net opening. A wet deck coupled with continuous movement of the boat makes this a difficult, physically demanding task.
One method disclosed in the prior art designed to overcome the manual arranging of purse rings employs a substantially horizontal ring holding finger that is affixed at one end by means of a post affixed to the deck of the boat. One end of the purse line is threaded through the finger and when the net is hauled in the rings are threaded onto the finger (Akre, U.S. Pat. No. 1,390,006, Sept. 6, 1921). In order to reduce the likelihood of rings slipping off after being threaded onto the finger a second technique employed a U shaped or substantially straight but upwardly inclined bar member mounted on the side of the boat at the location where the pursing line is normally hauled in (Whaley, U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,065, Dec. 2, 1969). A variation of the latter technique is to make the bar member or finger mounted on the side of the boat adjustable from a substantially horizontal position for drum seining in which the rings are fed off to the drum in the stern of the boat to an angularly upwardly extending position in which the net is pursed and the rings gathered in the usual way (Whaley, U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,345, Feb. 1, 1972). Another technique used in the prior art which avoids the need to hoist the purse rings high above the upper end of the finger in order to thread the rings onto the finger utilizes a purse ring stripper onto which the rings may be threaded at or even below water level (Jangaard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,498, Jan. 16, 1973). Although the latter technique avoids the heavy tackle required to raise to a considerable height the purse rings prior to threading them onto a prong or finger, it is susceptible to somewhat erractic movement during the incumbent danger of some of the rings slipping off or alternatively the causing of damage to personnel or to the boat itself.